[Sderby] Derby Knitting Circle [was Re: Sad MCPs in Free Software circles]

[Richard Smedley]

On Saturday 09 December 2006 00:00, Hans Kreuger wrote:
> > And consider too why there are so few women in this LUG - even
> > in comparison to the low percentages in other groups.
> >
> >  - Richard
> > [/Fed up with the incessant low-level put downs he sees people
> > giving every girl or woman interested in anything scientific]

> I consider it a little unfair to condemn the entire lug as
> inhospitable to women based on  comments from a single member. I don't
> think theres any basis to classify this lug in such a way.
> If you wish to respond to an individuals comment, fine - just don't
> envisage a vocal minority as representative of the whole.

Good morning Hans,

Yes, you're right, I was a little sweeping in my comments ;^/

It's just as I watch my daughters grow up with a slow and steady drip,
drip, drip of comments about how inappropriate it is to have an
interest in anything scientific, or IT, it means I get incredibly
annoyed by such comments.

Yes Steve, I realise you *meant* your comments as a joke - my point 
is that the cumulative effect of such comments on lists and
elsewhere is that many women just don't bother with Free Software.
And thus we all lose.

I'm a bit lost in all the comments about NUS, and women's officers,
as I went to agricultural college, not university, and then studied 
horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Women outnumber men
in horticulture, and neither sex feels the need for representatives,
because it's rightly assumed that your sex won't affect you're ability
to get the work done.

However in IT something is very wrong - and it goes right back to
how we teach children in Junior schools, so I'm not blaming it all
on the sense of humour of LUG members :-/

So, in summary: apologies for casting nasturtiums at the group
as a whole;   yes, it might be a joke, and women on the list aren't offended
- but it still has an effect;   universities are strange places;   I'm glad
Derby LUG is a welcoming place, but the meetings are on the wrong
side of the county for me - otherwise I'd regularly come and knit Zaurus
covers with you;   please, those of you who haven't, read the docs linked
below, and have a think about why we have so few women in Free Software
(compared to proprietary IT, as well as to other industries).

> > http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/index.html
> > http://www.linuxchix.org/content/docs/faqs/issues.html  [sections 2 to 4]

Knit one, Perl one, knit one, Perl one, ...

 - Richard

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/content/articles/2005/02/11/knit_cafe_feature.shtml

-- 
Richard Smedley,                                    richard at sc.lug.org.uk
Sustainable IT Consultant
http://m6-it.org/           ``Software Freedom for the Voluntary Sector''